On the Columbia River
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Eanger Irving Couse on the Columbia River Steven L. Grafe Eanger Irving Couse on the Columbia River anger Irving Couse (1866–1936) was an American painter who is well known to Western art aficionados. As the first president of the Taos Society of Artists and one whose works graced numerous Santa Fe Railway promotional cal- endars, he is generally associated with northern New Mexico and Pueblo Indians.E His reputation is also tied to work done in Paris and rural France but he spent several years working near the Columbia River in rural south-central Washington State and painted his first Indian subjects there. Couse lived and worked on a ranch belong- ing to his wife’s parents in 1891–92, 1896–98, and during the summers of 1901 and 1904. The resultant paintings are little known and poorly understood, in part because the Indians and geography he recorded are not well-known to the American public. In October 1887, a little more than a year after arriving in Paris, Couse had the good fortune to meet another expatriate American art student, Virginia Jane Walker (1860–1929). She was from far-off Washington State. In 1845, her father, Wellington Bolivar Walker (1824–1904), had left Missouri and crossed the Plains to Oregon with his brother. They settled in the Willamette Valley but Bolivar returned to Missouri in 1847 to help another brother come west. Their 1848 wagon train included the John Purvine family from Illinois. The Purvines also settled in the Willamette Valley and in 1850, Wellington Bolivar Walker, 1891, oil on Bolivar married Catherine Josephine Catherine Purvine Walker, 1891, oil on canvas, 16½" x 13¼"; Courtesy of Virginia canvas, 16" x 13½"; Courtesy of Virginia Couse Leavitt Purvine (1829–1901). Couse Leavitt 1 Eanger Irving Couse Studio at the Walker Ranch, c. 1896; Courtesy of the Couse Family Archive Bolivar and Catherine Walker Kibbey Whitman Couse with had seven children. Five of them Virginia Walker lived to adulthood and Virginia Jane Couse in the Window Seat, was the fourth of these. In 1867, Couse Studio, Walker Ranch, the family left western Oregon in c. 1898; Courtesy hopes of finding a healthier climate. of the Couse They relocated to eastern Klickitat Family Archive County, Washington Territory, and an isolated ranch that was located on Chapman Creek, about eight miles northwest of present-day Roosevelt, Washington. They purchased the land and an additional 150 acres at the creek’s confluence with the Columbia River from Joseph and 2 EANGER IRVING COUSE ON THE COLUMBIA RIVER Unknown Columbia River Plateau artist, Toy Cradle, c. 1880s, buckskin, glass beads, cloth, hair and board, 17" x 6¼" x 2¼"; Courtesy of The Couse Foundation This toy cradle was part of Couse’s collection of Indian objects and it appears in photos of the interior of his New York Indian Man in the Couse Studio, Walker Ranch, c. 1892; Courtesy of the Couse Family Archive City studio. Jane Chapman, the white settlers a severe 1889 blizzard and—at the River was much easier than making who had first claimed it. Among urging of Virginia’s brother, Fisk— the thirty-mile overland trek to the other amenities, the property was raised sheep after that. The Walkers county seat, Goldendale, Washington. home to eight-year-old apple and wintered their sheep herds near the Arlington had been established as peach trees. Bolivar’s interest in Columbia River and took their animals a hub for shipping cattle down the the enterprise was shared with to summer pasture in the Cascades Columbia River and it was not incor- Catherine’s younger brother, Nelson Mountains. The income from livestock porated until 1885. Its surrounding Purvine (1835–1911). was supplemented by the sale of fruit. landscape was harsh, with frequent Although the bulk of the Walker This produce was valued because white wind and sand storms. Vegetation was Ranch was just three miles north of settlers had not lived in the region scarce and alkali was so abundant that the Columbia River, the surround- long enough to plant many orchards. the village was originally founded as ing country received only about ten Much of their crop was sold across the “Alkali.” By the 1890s, the settlement inches of rain a year. The aridity made Columbia River in Arlington, Oregon, had about three hundred residents, it impossible to farm and so they were which was accessible by ferry. The many of whom were the families of cattle ranchers. The Walkers had a Walkers collected their mail, freight local farmers and ranchers who lived small dairy and were known for mak- and visitors in Arlington because a in town during the winter so that ing the best butter in the region. They three-mile trip down Chapman Creek their children could attend school. In lost much of their livestock during and across the undammed Columbia the summer months the town was the 3 The Captive, 1891, oil on canvas, 491/16" × 60¼"; Collection of Phoenix Art Museum, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Read Mullan and others, by exchange, 1994.7 This painting was Couse’s first major work with an American Indian subject. It was displayed in Portland in November 1891 and again in the 1892 Paris Salon (Société des Artistes Français). Virginia Walker Couse here posed in the same dress and shoes she later wore in Decision, The Crossing Back to the Barn. heart of regional agricultural activity parents—when she wrote, “It is a girls’ school in Portland, Oregon. with farming and ranching supplies, sacred spot with me. It is where all From there, Virginia attended the produce, wool and livestock moving my love and dearest associations Philadelphia School of Design for through town on their way to various centered for so many years of my Women and the National Academy destinations. life that I don’t think I can ever get of Design in New York. When Couse Virginia Walker had moved to over the feeling I have for it and the met her in 1887, she had been in the family ranch as a seven-year-old desire to go back there.”1 Paris for less than a month. She was and her heart strings were firmly Although living in relative isola- studying at Académie Colorossi and tied to the place—both because tion, the Walkers valued learning hoping to find a career as an illus- of the people who lived there and enough that both Virginia and her trator. Following several more years because of its landscape. These feel- older sister Frances or “Fan” (1858– of study, Virginia was forced to give ings were poignantly articulated in 1928) received secondary educa- up the idea of becoming an artist 1905—after the death of both her tions at St. Helen’s Hall, an Episcopal because of poor eyesight. After her 4 EANGER IRVING COUSE ON THE COLUMBIA RIVER artistic aspirations ended, she proved desirous of painting an historical The couple arrived in eastern to be an advocate for her husband picture for the [1892 World’s Klickitat County in late June 1891, and a promoter of his career. Columbian Exposition in and the Walkers began building their Eanger Irving Couse and Virginia Chicago]. I want it to be strictly son-in-law an atelier. The studio Jane Walker were married in Paris in American, and perhaps Indians. was constructed using a plan Couse September 1889. Six months earlier, From what Virginia says, the based on farmhouses he had seen Virginia had written to her parents west seems to be just the place to in France. Its walls were built of and said: study them. I want to get among volcanic rock that was carried from How I would love to come home them and do the studying very an eroding cliff near Chapman Creek. in the summer & see you all. If seriously, as conscientious work When completed, the structure was we prosper a year from this sum- is the only road to real success. nearly two stories tall and boasted a mer we will come. Mr. C and I So we shall possibly come west in large, sloping, north-facing window, had such a long talk about you a couple of years, as I must have a window seat in its west end and a this morning. I was telling him plenty of time to paint the picture large fireplace. Virginia told Fan: all about the ranch. He thinks and have it completed.3 Father is having such a nice large he could paint some fine pic- In September 1890, Virginia studio fixed for Mr. Couse, it will tures out there. Are there any wrote that Couse “wants to do a be finished this week & we will Indian camps around now or are startling Indian thing” but their be moved in. We are going to they all gone? Mr. Couse wants planned summer 1891 trip to the sleep & live in it . We will still to paint some Indian pictures.2 Walker Ranch became an on-again, take our meals [with our par- Couse himself weighed in on the off-again affair. However, in March ents]. They have taken the gra- matter shortly after the wedding. He 1891 they determined with certainty nary and extended it out to the wrote to Fan: to make the trip, anticipating that smoke house, so you see how big I love Paris and it will seem like Couse would “paint seriously” and it will be.4 parting with an old and valued devote his energies to completing a Although a proper work space was friend to go, but I am very work for the 1892 Paris Salon.